3 Tips to Guarantee Your Emails Are Opened

Have you noticed that you are spending more than an hour drafting the perfect email? While the message contained in your email may be important, the meaning may be lost if you are not able to expertly craft other elements of the email.

Aside from writing good subject lines, what else can you do to boost your open rate? While we are all aware that the subject line of your email is important to your subscribers, there are additional segments of the email that you should consider:

Email Tip #1 -the “From” Field Name

When people receive your emails, who is listed as the sender? Is it your company name? Is it your department name? Is it your first and last name?

Is your “from name” meaningful and recognizable? Include your name AND the company name in your From Field. By adding this level of customization to your email you are guaranteed that subscribers will be more likely to open your email. For example, a personalized email that comes from “Sam White, Acme Products” gives you more information than an email that is delivered by “Sam White” or “Acme Products”.

Is it readable on mobile? Mobile devices display on average 14 characters in the “From” field. Keep your information as short as possible.

Email Tip #2 – Tell Subscribers the Email Contains a Numbered List

When was the last time you read an article online that did not have some form of list? It probably has been a while. In fact, you may be reading this article because the subject line told you there were “3 tips” listed inside.

Numbered lists are an easy way for people to digest information, which increases the likelihood of people opening your emails. Make it a “best of” list or a collections of tips, and you have an enticing subject line. Lists also give people an idea of how much content your email contains, allowing them to make a decision about whether or not they have time to read it.

Email Tip #3 – Play It Cool

It is very possible that the reason your emails are not opened is because you have expressed too much enthusiasm in your subject line. By capitalizing ALL OF YOUR TEXT or including multiple exclamation points (!!!), you are sending the message that you are unprofessional or this message is spam.

If you want to call special attention to text in your subject line without scaring your subscribers away, use brackets to “highlight” keywords:

Of course, the best way to ensure that your emails are not only read, but allow you to to generate leads is to have a strong call to action. If you can ask an open-ended question in the subject line and answer it with a bulleted or numbered list in the body of the email, you will be ready to introduce a strong call to action and convert some of your long-time prospects into new customers.

For more information about email and direct mail marketing, call 800-MED-LIST(633-5478).